The Longdogs

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Wow, this post is so far overdue. We headed out to Lake Pointe on the 17th.

By us, I mean the Traveling Longdogs and me plus son Steve and grandkids Cameron and Morgan. We were the advance party setting up the site. Well, I find it works best if the Traveling Longdogs snooze in the truck while I back in with Steve guiding. The two of us set up while the dogs snooze and the grandkids play in the park. That is much faster and less stressful for all. We were all set to park in one spot when some ladies we've met a number of times recommended a site we would not have thought of taking. They said the last people there loved it and it had lots of shade.....highly recommended when the temps are skirting 100. It turned out to be a great site. After daughter-in-law Helen got off work, she picked up Angus and came out in time for a swim before dinner. Angus was curious about the "funny looking dogs" and they were curious about him but he was just as good as Willy, Gretchen, and Harley are with wildlife.

If you remember previous visits to this park, there is lots of wildlife and the deer are not afraid of people.

They also are not afraid of our dogs because the Traveling Longdogs and their newest buddy, Angus, never bark at them. It's a mutual admiration society.

This is the adult pool near the office. It isn't used a lot because the other pool is Junior Olympic size.

Everyone took lots of walks in the morning before it got so hot. Then the pool received several visits.

One big improvement for this trip was that I finally figured out how to hook the VHS player up to the TV without having to unhook the antenna from the TV to use the same slot. Sure makes things easier. We have a number of movies to watch and the park also has a library with quite a few movies to borrow. A lot of them are older VHS rather than DVD but now I am set up for easy use of either. It's a nice alternative right before bedtime.

We had to deal with something that was not so fun too. I have absolutely loved the Aerobed in my sleeper sofa and thought it was more comfortable than the regular bed which is supposed to be a Deluxe RV bed but you all know how little that means. Anyway the airbed is a lot better than any jacknife type sofa I've seen....until it loses air like mine did on the last trip. It was four years old but was probably only used about 25 times. We couldn't find any holes in it. Anyway, I had ordered a new Aerobed from Dealyards.com and it arrived before we went out on this trip. The new bed didn't even last the night. Steve and Helen are beginning to think they are jinxed as they were sleeping on the defunct beds both times. We couldn't find anything wrong with it anywhere and aired it up the second time with the same result. Anyway, determined not to let the trip be ruined, we shuffled beds around and found a decent place for all to sleep. Grandkids are pretty easy that way....Cameron was thrilled to sleep on a regular old swimming air mattress (30 years old cloth type and still working just fine!) and Morgan slept on the sofa without the bed being opened. I moved to the dinette and put Steve and Helen in the "Mistress" bedroom. This was after they first night when they insisted they could sleep together on the dinette but finally had to concede that a 6'4" male and 5'10" female really don't do well on a single bed.

We had a fun trip anyway with the good and the bad. And, for the first time ever, we maxed out the black water tank (I can make 3 weeks on it when alone but 3 adults and 2 kids made it 4 days). Good thing the bathrooms were not far away and we made it past the weekend and partway through Monday. Angus went home with Helen on Sunday night as she had to work Monday. I don't think he really wanted to leave.

Postscript: Last week was a busy week after we got home from the lake on Tuesday and got everything unloaded and the RV back to storage. We went to Fiesta Texas Waterpark on Wednesday. The kids had plans on Thursday and then we all hung out together on Friday. Saturday the grandkids had to head back to their Mom's so it's been much quieter around both our households.

Tuesday we headed to New Braunfels to the McKenna Children's Museum. The kids have been to the Children's Museum in San Antonio and had a great time. Helen is great at finding Groupons to various places which save quite a bit on entrance fees.

The Children's Museum is quite a bit smaller than the one in San Antonio and, at first, we were a little concerned that the set up seemed designed for children younger than Cam and Morgan who are 11 and 8. I would definitely recommend it for children under 8 but the grandkids still had a great time. Morgan has a doctor's coat on taking care of her "patient".....

......while Cam was checking out cells under the microscope.

How tall are we?

Learning about the effects of water flow.

The resident artist's room was a big hit with easels, smocks, and paint.

Morgan did this picture and presented it to us.

It takes concentration to be a great artist.

After the museum visit, we all headed back to Grandpa and Grandma's house for dinner and.......
another birthday party. Harley is now 6 years old and, no, he didn't have any of his chocolate cake before anyone gets worried.

Harley and the rest of the furkids guests all had several doggy treats of chicken jerky.....a favorite!

Helen had never been to see the missions in San Antonio. Since it was over a year since we took the grandkids there (before Helen arrived in San Antonio, we figured that Sunday would be a good day to hit the mission trail.

There are five historic missions in San Antonio with the Alamo being the most well known. They are all part of the National Park System (NPS). The NPS maintains the grounds while the San Antonio Catholic Diocese renovates and maintains the churches themselves. It is a unique partnership that works very well. The churches all have regular services unless they are being renovated. You are welcome to go inside and look around unless services are in session. We didn't include the Alamo on this trip so we started with Mission Concepcion. It has been many years since I had been there and it was everyone else's first time since we only did Mission San Jose last year.

Church services were in session so we did not go inside the chapel part but got a good look at everything else.

People and doors were much shorter in the 1700's.

Our next stop was Mission San Jose which is a must see for this group of missions. The NPS has a headquarters here with a movie, exhibits, gift shop, and ranger led tours. These missions were so much more than churches. They were whole self supporting communities with farmland. The Spaniards also utilized these missions to establish their position in the area. The Indians were given Spanish citizenship and they were considered Spanish colonists once they learned Spanish and became part of the mission life.

If you only have a couple of hours, visit Mission San Jose, watch the movie, and take a ranger led tour.

Next we were off to Mission San Juan Capistrano. We weren't able to get right up close to this one because it is under renovation.

Each of the missions has a different look. One tower, two towers, bells......

The final mission is Mission Estrada.

The Espada Aquaduct and dam are also close by for viewing.

I definitely recommend a visit to the San Antonio missions. It will be well worth your time.